Futari Clan Prospector "Space Budgie" (LEGO creation)

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The versatile articulated chassis

of the Futari Clan's Prospector line can fulfill many end uses with minimal modification, a fact that has kept it in production for hundreds of years.

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While clan press releases describe

the design aesthetic as "aquiline" and call the vessel a "raptor", the universally popular nickname "space budgie" acknowledges that the cockpit and hull line resemble a parakeet.

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Prospect while you fly

as the catchy jingle went, calls to one of the Prospector's strongest selling points: once landed, the vessel is easily reconfigured into a stationary prospecting lab and a separate two person cruiser.

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Click 'em to embiggen

The ability to simultaneously mine one deposit

while exploring for the next is invaluable for small operations in the outer belt. It is not uncommon to see budgies still in use five centuries after date of manufacture, with hardly an original part on board but still lovingly maintained by a belter crew!

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Variant configuration of detached cruiser

Process


As always with my Lego creations I dove in freeform without a plan beyond "make a spaceship". I value movement and poseability in my spaceship designs so I usually start out by creating a central body piece that has several attachment points that will allow eventual rotating wings, cockpits, limbs, etc. Then I start playing around with configurations.

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And more!

There are actually a bunch of different ways to configure and pose this thing that I have not shared above, but this is already becoming a long post. I really need to do a video walkthrough where I show off all the ways this thing can move and transform. I will probably do another post or two about the space budgie :)



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16 comments
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So refreshing to see cool stuff on steem... Looked more tortoise like to me in the cockpit but either way it's awesome and I appreciate that you're still playing hard in the yard!

Posted using Partiko Android

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You know I was thinking turtle originally but my wife said parrot, then when I got farther along in construction the body shape in the upright configuration is more birdlike. But yeah I totally see tortoise as well. We always play hard :)

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amazing toy :) and the image you've made with the landscape background...
i used to play and make such photos in my granny's garden as a kid
analog of course....
i think i still keep them .. and could probably scan them for posting here ;)

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that sounds like a good idea RE scanning in some old lego creations posed in your granny's backyard as post fodder :)

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amazing technology👍👍💫🌸

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Thanks yeah Clan Futari really knows how to make a workhorse. They may not have the sleek lines of a Ferrari but the safety record and resale value even centuries after production speak for themselves

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Darn that first photo was pretty deceiving in my eyes. I thought it was a big structure sitting in the middle of a really calm lake that has mountains in the background. But it's a table! You wouldn't have to do that much to this photo in Photoshop (or some other... Gimp?) so that it would look like what I first thought it was.

Like this one:
https://mymodernmet.com/michael-paul-smith-elgin-park/

Pretty !DERANGED

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That is a cool link :) Yeah I was hoping the reflection on the table would read like water, I gave the table a quick wipe down with a wet rag before I shot that picture to heighten the effect. Glad to hear it worked :)

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Wow Carl, that first shot though, I thought it was a 3D render, until I scrolled down. Awesome stuff

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Thanks Ruben! Looking back at the post I realized I only included one of the reflection shots, I have some other cool ones with similar effect but the post was already pretty long. The sunset light comes right through my backyard and lights up those mountains and it is really a beautiful view

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Sup Dork?!? Enjoy the Upvote!!! Keep up with the dorky content for more love!!!

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That is an absolute cracker. I love way you've captured the modular design and different configurations. How long did it take you, and how many pieces are in it?

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I did the bulk of the construction in two pushes on Saturday and Sunday nights, maybe five hours ish. I did some more small modifications after that, with a creation like this a lot of it is playing around with the different configurations and then making small changes to allow a different setup to work. I have no idea how many pieces are in there, this was total freestyle construction. I suppose once it inevitably gets destroyed by my kids I could try to count the bricks left in the pile :joy:

I do want to try to do a video walkthrough with it before it gets destroyed, the way it moves and transforms is very smooth and that doesn't really show up in still pictures. Thanks for the resteem!

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Well it certainly looks fantastic and I'd love to see a video walkthrough of all the features.

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